How to give up the booze

There comes a point when those few daily glasses of wine start to feel unhelpful to health and wellbeing. But how best to cut out alcohol? If the discrepancy between your estimate and actual intake motivates you to quit, monitor your alcohol consumption with an app such as Drinkaware. Identify the rewards of abstinence. Dr Christopher Muller-Pollard, consultant psychiatrist at Nightingale Hospital in London and a specialist in alcohol dependency, suggests that if you list the negative effects of that half bottle of chardonnay chugged with dinner – “I get irritable, I feel tired the next morning, I’m putting on weight, increasing my risk of osteoporosis” – you identify goals that are more meaningful than just “not drinking”.

Dr Muller-Pollard suggests that citing health reasons [to not be outcast by your peers] is socially “acceptable”. He suggests saying “My doctor told me I was drinking too much – I thought I’d see if I could not drink for a week”